Memory question: mix or all new for the old puppy.

[NWNobleman]

So here is the deal. I'm prying open my desktop, and having come from someone who couldn't tell you much about anything to a guy with a quarter's worth of community college tech course knowledge, I am naturally considering a few tweaks to the system to improve its workability, especially around games and graphics.

 

I got some pretty good answers from the guys over in the gaming forum about graphics card and that my CPU is probably good enough for what I want to do. Thanks guys for that. It is a warm welcome to the newbie tech.

 

I have 8 Gb of RAM in two sticks of 4 Gb, and that seems to be what the motherboard, an Acer Ipimb-AR, likes, but it has two more RAM slots, and that is where the question comes in.

 

Do I pick up two more compatible sticks and plug them on in next to the old ones, or would it be best practices to get four sticks all new?

 

To quote a site with the specs on, "4 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM slots Supports Dual Channel DDR3 1333 non-ECC , un-buffered memory (Max 16GB)" According to here.

[Tmt97]

It will probably be fine to mix them.

[KemoKa]

It depends. I've had no problems with mixed RAM but I've heard that it can result in a higher rate of error generation. It won't matter for consumer applications most of the time, if at all.

 

In terms of age, however, there's no problem. DRAM at this point of development is more or less bulletproof against absolutely everything. I've carried DIMMs in my pocket, in my bag on flights, I've freaking slept with them. There's pretty much nothing to be worried about with RAM nowadays.

 

The more the merrier, I say!

[NWNobleman]

Thanks for the help, guys.

[NWNobleman]

Update: I have had all 4 DIMMs in for a few days now and they seem to work together fairly seamlessly.

Now to get the PSU and video card into it when the former arrives some time this week.